HAYWARD -- The Radisson, Wis., man accused of fatally stabbing a 93-year-old woman last month in her home made his initial appearance in Sawyer County Circuit Court today.
Appearing via video conference, Christopher Lee Roalson, 27, waived his time limit right for a preliminary hearing. The hearing was set for Oct. 19.
Roalson has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the brutal May 3 slaying of Irena Roszak of Radisson. Roalson is accused of stabbing Roszak numerous times and beating her with a chair. Austin Davis, 15, has been charged as party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide.
Several of Roszak's family members attended today's hearing.
"She wanted to die in peace" Marianne "Krista" Muellner, Roszak's daughter, said. "She lived all her life through World War II and raised five children to die this way. No. She did not deserve to die this way."
ADVERTISEMENT
Roszak and her husband, Czeslaw, fled Germany after the war to Venezuela, coming to the U.S. in 1956. Roszak had lived alone since her husband's death in 1996.
Roalson's family was not in court.
